She Killed in Ecstasy: Jesús Franco

There are two ways to examine Jesús Franco's She Killed in Ecstasy: via its technical qualities and via its strength as a story. From a technical stand-point, She Killed in Ecstasy may be Franco's most beautiful and stunningly realized film. Cinematographer Manuel Merino's perpetually floating camera and sharp eye for surrealistic frame compositions create an indulgent, lurid atmosphere that complements the shocking story. The images are frequently matched with bizarrely upbeat music which gives the film a sense of feverish detachment. And yet, from a story stand-point, She Killed in Ecstasy has issues. The plot is essentially a reversal of the rape-revenge formula: after a scientist who illegally experimented on human embryos commits suicide after being expelled from the academic community, his heart-broken wife sexually seduces and murders the four members of the medical committee responsible. So whereas rape-revenge films involve women responding to sexual violence with physical violence, She Killed in Ecstasy has its protagonist respond to physical violence with sexual violence. But here's the main problem: we are supposed to empathize with the wife's quest for revenge. But allow me to point a few things out. First, the four committee members were needlessly cruel in their personal attacks on the scientist, but they were still technically justified considering the fact that he was illegally experimenting on humans. And second, any feelings of sympathy we might feel for the wife are immediately abandoned when she starts to kill innocent bystanders who were uninvolved with her husband's death. Taken simply as a stylistic exercise, She Killed in Ecstasy is exquisite. But as a story, it doesn't past muster.

5/10